ROBE RT PISANO / GAYLORD, GRAINGER, LIBBY, 0 B RIEN-SM1TH ARCHITECTS
Club, is an intimate haven that specializes in serenity and privacy – the
perfect place to "detox" from the pressures of the workaday world. No
more than thirty guests are permitted to stay on this 850-acre island at
any one time. It is even possible to rent the entire island ($5,500 to
$7,400 a day, depending on the season).
Happily for honeymooners who want nothing more than to be left
alone, there's no public restaurant or marina on Guana Island to draw
boisterous charter-boat crews. Supervised recreation is certainly not
Guana Island's strong suit, but activity seekers will find plenty to do:
there are two courts for tennis, Hobie cats and windsurfers for sail-
ing the crystal waters around the island, boats for skiing and fishing,
and radically beautiful White Bay for sunning, swimming and snor-
keling.
Fashioned from native stone, the fifteen guest units are not luxuri-
ous, but their beamed ceilings, rattan furnished interiors, sunny porch-
es and patios make them more than adequate. In the main lounge, with
its honor bar and adjacent library with fireplace, a house party ambi-
ence prevails. (Doubles from $395 to $530 including all meals; call Re-
sorts Management, Inc., 800-225-4255.).
Necker Island Necker Island is the site of a solitary and
spectacular Balinese villa. Previously uninhabited and inhospitable to
human life, Necker, a 74-acre island off North Sound in Virgin Gor-
da, was transformed into what is today possibly the most talked-about
resort in the Caribbean. The man behind this daring mission was self-
styled eccentric English billionaire, Richard Branson, founder of Vir-
gin Atlantic Airlines and Virgin Records, who purchased this Virgin
(Necker, that is) thirteen years ago for £300,000. The low-slung roof
of the dramatic villa he built now looms mysteriously and important-
ly from the hilltop of this arid, prickly islet, acting as a curious bea-
con for yachtsmen who ply the waters in and around North Sound.
Branson's fabulous stone and timber villa boasts ten bedrooms and
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•JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1993 •
STYLE
ten baths, various terraces and galleries, a complete music system, a
full complement of work-out equipment, and oversized, overstuffed
furnishings. Showers are grottoes made of native stone. For recreation,
there's the freshwater pool and jacuzzi, water skis, sailboards, sailboats,
snorkel and scuba gear, and floodlit tennis court. For rainy days or
evenings: a giant chest of board games, a library of videos, and the only
snooker (a variation of pool) table in all the British Virgins. People such
as Princess Diana, who has spent a week here with her children and
entourage, fall asleep at night to a chorus of tree frogs, with the win-
dows, indeed the very walls, open to the tradewinds.
Well, okay, Necker is hardly suitable for the young bride and groom
(unless they met at the Lottery office, picking up their winnings).
For affluent second honeymooners, maybe. And for second honey-
mooners willing to share the place with nine other couples to help de-
fray the phenomenal expense (the house sleeps twenty), definitely.
(Winter rates for two people: $8,250 per day; summer rates: $5,550. In-
cludes helicopter transfer from Virgin Gorda or Beef Island, staff of
nineteen, boats to other islands, one-day yacht charter, calypso band
for a party evening, and more. Call Resorts Management, Inc., 800-225-
4255.)
Meridian Club on Pine Cay, Turks and
Caicos When it comes to isolated islands, the Turks and Caicos
win hands down. They're nowhere— not in the Caribbean, not in the
Bahamas. Situated southeast of the Bahamas, midway between Key
West and Tortola, this archipelago, a British crown colony, consists of
forty islands, only eight of which are inhabited.
One of these is Pine Cay (pronounced "key"), an 800-acre out-island
owned by the Meridien Club resort community. With its palmettos,
seven fresh-water ponds, two-and-a-half-mile strip of beach (the most
beautiful in the island chain), and casuarina pines, the cay evokes ear-
ly Bermuda, Bermuda before it became settled, civilized and ultimately